Teach Yourself to Echolocate

Re:Teach Yourself to Echolocate by bezmiran on Saturday November 16, 2024 @10:26PM (#42161760)

I suspect it would be a very challenging problem for the earpiece part to recreate the directional info as well as our own ears, since the brain's ability to detect the direction of sounds depends on the shape of the ear itself.

Maybe a simple mechanical clicker device like those used for dog training could be a useful tool.

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Re:Teach Yourself to Echolocate by zafka on Saturday November 16, 2024 @10:40PM (#42161810)

I have one of these - purpose built for blind people to use. Pretty sure I picked it up at a NFB convention in Atlanta around the turn of the century. (NFB = National Federation of the blind)

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Re:Teach Yourself to Echolocate by mmooss on Saturday November 16, 2024 @10:41PM (#42161814)

How well does it work?

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Re:Teach Yourself to Echolocate by zafka on Sunday November 17, 2024 @11:12AM (#42164932)

I will get back to you on that. I just found it in my desk. I myself am sighted, and have never used it for echo location - yet. Looking at it I realized that it was given out by my old employer: Blazie engineering. Coincidentally, I just ran into the founder recently. Next time I see him, I will ask him about the feedback he got on these clickers. I will say that after twenty years in a drawer it sounds good to my uneducated ears.

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Re:Teach Yourself to Echolocate by 31carmichael on Tuesday November 19, 2024 @02:57AM (#42180955)

please ask them if this or any others were commercially available. Thanks!

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Re:Teach Yourself to Echolocate by laborcontract on Saturday November 16, 2024 @10:41PM (#42161815)

Seems like a fun use case for spatial audio on the airpods.

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Re:Teach Yourself to Echolocate by gniv on Sunday November 17, 2024 @02:42AM (#42162625)

If the wavelengths are not far from audible, wouldn't it be mostly a translation?

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